Friday, June 5, 2009

No One Expects the Spanish Inquisition!

Well, I said I wasn't gonna talk about Spanish bottom brackets anymore—and I probably won't. Much. But I couldn't resist using that post title:



Anyway, Darcy talked some more about Macneil's choice of the Spanish BB standard here, and the discussion got interesting in the comments section of the original post, with Taj talking about blowing up bearings and JPR coming up with his own modest proposal. If that discussion were to continue—either in this comment section or that one—it wouldn't be a bad thing. Personally, I still feel like it would be nice if we could decide on one bottom bracket bearing standard. After all, we're pretty settled on 1 1/8" integrated headsets and 25.4mm seatposts, and no one complains about either of those infringing on their rights to free design. (Obviously any company could feel free to make frames that took, say, 27.0mm seatposts and—what's that? Standard already tried that? Yes, and we all saw how that turned out.)

••••••••••

Rob Wise has a new frame from Volume that doesn't have any holes drilled in the seattube. Whew. I actually saw it a month or so back when Rob was in NYC, but thought shooting photos of his bike would be a little presumptious. Plus, I didn't have my camera with me.

The funny thing is, it's actually three ounces lighter that the First Blood, his first signature frame, even without the "silencer" holes. Eat it, Rambo.

••••••••••

So yeah, new Eastern forks. Terrific. Just a few questions/comments:
• What exactly are "heaven drops"?
• Please put the CNC controls down.
• I understand that a capped tube with a hole cut in the cap is stronger than an uncapped one, but I still don't get it.
• That 'original' "Hangfree" dropout design? Yeah, Sunday sort of did that first.
• I'm still not entirely sure why you'd buy a fork not made by S&M or Odyssey, especially one that weighs less than two pounds.
• When does the titanium version come out?
••••••••••

One for the weekend. I feel like I posted this before, but what the hell.



••••••••••

Almost forgot! Either Gary Ellis or Jody Donnelly is selling his bike on eBay. Tragic.

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can add WeThePeople to the fork list, as they're very, very similar in construction to the Odyssey forks. If you're adding S&M to the list, you can definitely add WTP simply because I haven't seen any pics of entire batches of WTP forks having their dropouts fall off (like the Pitchfork XLTs)...

Anonymous said...

I know it was only one batch, but if you're staking a claim about being US-made and being made with more care than Taiwanese products, it's pretty ironic and indeed laughable if you make such a fundamental mistake in the production of your forks...

Anonymous said...

fbm did the hang free drop out design before sunday...

Russ said...

I guess if you wanted to be really accurate, SE Racing did the "hang-free" dropout before there were even pegs to hang.

Anonymous said...

I didn't see the Spanish/mid BB debate, kind of following on from JPR's comment. Two types of BB (or 4 if you still use Euro or US) is nothing really, not compared to road bikes (especially older road bikes), where nothing is standardized and it seems every manufacturer did their own thing. I mean, the simplification is a good thing. I'm happy I can install any (modern) BMX BB and cranks with the same common tools, while you'd need half the tools in a bike shop to fit all the combinations of road BB and cranks. Standardizing the size of a press fit BB wouldn't really make any difference to the end user. They're both fitted the same way and is the average rider isn't breaking a Spanish BB every month.

Anonymous said...

I was just looking through the QBP catalog, BMX by far has the fewest and most simple spec variations of any bicycle segment.

To say the mid BB shell looks bulky and is overkill is mind-bottling to me.

Anonymous said...

why would that be gary ellis' bike?

Anonymous said...

the 24" seat-post.

But since it's a dk and not gt, I'm pretty sure russ was kidding.

G.S.GUCCILIFE said...

I used to have pitchforks,and i couldnt fit a peg correctly.I had to grind the peg on one side,to have it facing the dropout correctly
ps:peg was an ANIMAL

Stephen said...

I said this in the other post...

If a spanish BB is good enough for the ultimate male, then who the fuck are we to argue?

taj is a few shades of pigmentation away from doing luggage commercials in the 70's anyways, so who would really be shocked that he could blow a bearing up?

Anonymous said...

"I know it was only one batch, but if you're staking a claim about being US-made and being made with more care than Taiwanese products, it's pretty ironic and indeed laughable if you make such a fundamental mistake in the production of your forks..."

It's apparent you have never seen all the shitty samples and refused production runs that EVERY company deals with in Taiwan constantly. S&M has had one bad batch of forks in over 20 years, pretty good track record. The inconsistency of Taiwan manufacturing is more pervasive than in the States.

Even Georg French mentions refused production runs with relative frequency.

Anonymous said...

"taj is a few shades of pigmentation away from doing luggage commercials in the 70's anyways, so who would really be shocked that he could blow a bearing up?"

where the fuck are you going with this statement?

steve said...

don't forget all the other industry standards, like 22.2mm bars, 14mm or 3/8" axles, stem bolt thread sizes, forks using a custom top cap(instead of starflange nuts)

if some of you only knew how evil the rest of the cycling industry was... you wouldn't care about a fucking fork. its just a gay fork russ, continue to mock snafu please

jeremy said...

they don't really do ti stuff anymore. the hawkeyes are ridiculously solid, too.

Anonymous said...

"taj is a few shades of pigmentation away from doing luggage commercials in the 70's anyways, so who would really be shocked that he could blow a bearing up?"

wow wow wut?

Rasict, much? GTFO BMX.

Anonymous said...

if you think BMX is bad... how about a company that only allows you to use their rims with their hub by only using their spokes? (industry nine)

Or a rear axel "industry standard" that changes ever year... The mtb world is so much more complex than BMX. It's silly actually.

you said...

You said Jody Donnelly... 10 points.

us said...

as for "heaven forks..."

it's a reference to the place where prayers must be sent in order for the forks not to break...

G.S.GUCCILIFE said...

"taj is a few shades of pigmentation away from doing luggage commercials in the 70's anyways"

GENIUS!Taj,no offense,nothing personal,im just appreciatin' the line itself.

newrider3 said...

Were dual hydro brakes really necessary on that DK?

Anonymous said...

"don't forget all the other industry standards, like 22.2mm bars, 14mm or 3/8" axles, stem bolt thread sizes, forks using a custom top cap(instead of starflange nuts)"

i dont mean to be a pain, but can you guys stop giving eastern ideas where to save weight? i dont feel in the mood of reading tomorrow: "we are working on a new innovation: 17.77mm bars..." or "blah blah blah 8mm axels"
fuck that shit.

sam stanfield said...

so is byers gonna beat my ass up because i didnt buy their shit? i trust no company that drills out little pictures on dropouts or 1/8" away from welds. fuck this noize, ive been running odyssey dirt forks for the past 5 years and will continue to do so until i die. yea, i have seen euro's snap out from the frame, but also weak spindles/bb might have been in play. bmx is where it should be as far as weight. if youre so concerned about getting shit lighter, drop the prices so you can make more sales because your shit fails so much. choose parts wisely and just know what you the rider are getting yourself into.

Anonymous said...

i really hope you did not mean to slam the Lumberjack in any way, shape or form, Russ.

Anonymous said...

Kinda retarded how the only off-the-shelf Spanish bearing that fits any BMX spindle size is for 20mm spindles.

At least Mid for 3/4" ('19mm') spindles is off the shelf.

Russ said...

I have nothing but respect for The Lumberjack's gangsta (and his four-foot high seatpost).

George Canadian French said...

This is the future, you Neolithic fucks

http://www.bb30standard.com/tech_images/bb30standard.pdf

Word: chunt (no, really)